Seaboard Hospitality

From the start of The Avenue Restaurant as a tea room in 1937 to the recent renovations of Cooper Cottages, Seaboard Hospitality has flourished over four generations by identifying what customers want most in vacation accommodations and amenities and delivering it with an emphasis on caring, thoughtfulness and value. Big George Shockley was a seria... l entrepreneur who dug and dredged canals, salvaged and sunk ships, bought and sold real estate, and built a variety of commercial and residential buildings. He and his wife, Eliza, got their start in hospitality first constructing and then renting vacation cottages in Rehoboth Beach on the ocean block of New Castle Street where they also made their home in a boarding house, renting out rooms on the upper floors. That early venture into the nascent tourism industry in Delaware soon resulted in the building and operation of a movie theatre and a tea room on Rehoboth Avenue in 1937. Big George Shockley was a serial entrepreneur who dug and dredged canals, salvaged and sunk ships, bought and sold real estate, and built a variety of commercial and residential buildings. He and his wife, Eliza, got their start in hospitality first constructing and then renting vacation cottages in Rehoboth Beach on the ocean block of New Castle Street where they also made their home in a boarding house, renting out rooms on the upper floors. That early venture into the nascent tourism industry in Delaware soon resulted in the building and operation of a movie theatre and a tea room on Rehoboth Avenue in 1937. After a short lease to a third party, the Shockleys acquired additional parcels of land behind the property to expand the business in the 1940s. Soon thereafter, they turned the whole of the space over to their daughters, Grace and Helen, to operate with Helens husband, Alvin, as the Avenue Restaurant. Grace later left the partnership to focus on vacation rentals, taking over from her parents the reservations and operations of more than a dozen rental cottages. She oversaw their ...Read More